Traditional Bakeries and Bakery-Cafés

Franklin Street Bakery
1020 Franklin Ave. E., Mpls., 612-879-5730
You can find Franklin Street Bakery’s winning breads around the Cities, but it’s worth stopping at the mother ship for focaccia with caramelized onion and roasted red peppers, crumbly rosemary corn cakes, and wheaten artisan breads. You’ll find cupcakes and carrot cakes, dense buttery pound cakes, simple and elegant layer cakes, and stylish fruit and nut tarts, plus the best apple-pecan coffeecake around.

French Meadow Bakery & Café
2610 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls., 612-870-7855
Rustic sourdough breads are this bakery’s foundation—those chewy, dense country-white and multigrain loaves (yeast-free breads too) can now be found all around the Twin Cities and are shipped across the country. At the home store, the big bakery case is long on toothsome sweets—two-fisted brownies, sticky caramel rolls, and tender, berry-chocked muffins.

Gigi’s Café
822 W. 36th St., Mpls., 612-825-0818
Coffeecakes loaded with crumble topping, jumbo chocolate chip cookies, and buttery pound cakes sweeten this bustling place. Spread out with the newspaper at one of the big tables, or color with a toddler, or gather for a committee meeting. The baristas are as sunny as this airy place; stopping at Gigi’s in the morning is a bright way to start the day.

Isles Bun & Coffee
1424 W. 28th St., Mpls., 612-870-4466
Cinnamon buns the size of your corgi or twisted into small “puppy dog tails.” Go Saturday morning, no one seems to mind the long lines, jostling, and chatting. It’s hard to be crabby breathing in that warm, intoxicating smell of baking from scratch. Choose from hunks of crumbly, fruity coffeecakes, sticky pecan buns, or tender scones. There’s extra icing to pile on the puppy dog tails. Life is swell.

Lucia’s Bakery & To Go
1428 W. 31st St., Mpls., 612-825-1572
Lucia’s lovelies—those tender Budapest bundts, rich scones, dense corn bread, fruit cobbler, delicate madeleines, and fresh wheaten breads (the nutty, whole-grain house bread and chewy sourdough), plus those adorable meringues. Stick around for a crepe (savory cheese and veggie or bittersweet chocolate) and set a spell at the long table in front of the plate glass window. Watch Uptown go by.

May Day Café
3440 Bloomington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-729-5627
Vegetarians and vegans never had it so good. Though a vegan scone may sound like an oxymoron, the cherry-pecan and the banana-walnut, both made without butter, put others to shame. Dense, crumbly, and tender, they are made for dipping in a soy latte. The croissants are among the best around town. May Day is superfriendly, funky, filled with beautiful artwork, located near Powderhorn Park—and a great place to hang.

Mel-O-Glaze Bakery & Donut Shop
4800 28th Ave. S., Mpls., 612-729-9316
The best glazed doughnuts, made fresh all day long, plus apple fritters, cinnamon rolls, pies, and cakes. But go for the doughnuts.